Sharks back atop Pacific if they beat Ducks, lineup staying same and, yes, coaches have favorites

It should get a little easier to figure out precisely where the Sharks are in the standings after tonight’s 7 p.m. game against the Anaheim Ducks.

For months, the Sharks have played fewer games than their closest rivals. And while they still will have a game or two in hand on some of the teams they’re vying with for playoff spots, after tonight they’ll be all even with both Dallas and Los Angeles as all three teams — and arguably the best of the three still not locked into the Western Conference playoffs — will have 10 games left on the schedule

Making it even juicier, if the Sharks get two points tonight, they leap-frog over both Dallas and Phoenix to the top of the Pacific Division and the No. 3 seed that comes with that title. San Jose hasn’t occupied that perch since Feb. 25.

Crazy time, eh?

Dan Boyle, Todd McLellan and others have been saying for a while that games in hand are basically worthless unless you win. Still, Boyle could find value in simply getting the subject off the table:

“There’ll be no more talk of it, so that’s the positive,” he joked.

*****Speaking of the tight standings, I erred in some print editions by saying the Sharks had the tie-breaker advantage over Los Angeles. Not true.

This is the second season that shootout wins do not count as part of the total wins that determine which team gets the higher seed if both have the same number of points.

Factoring that in, the Sharks — even with their shootout woes for a while there — come out on the short end with 29 regulation or overtime victories to 30 that the Kings have. In fact, those 29 are fewer than Dallas, Phoenix, Colorado and Calgary as well.

*****Still injured, Tommy Wingels won’t be in the lineup tonight though McLellan had left open the possibility on Sunday that he might. In fact, all four lines at the morning skate mirrored those that beat Detroit 3-2 in overtime Saturday night.

No reason to think the defense pairings will be any different either as both Colin White and Jim Vandermeer were among the last player on the ice.

Where Wingels ends up when he’s healthy is an interesting predicament for McLellan and he didn’t tip his hand when I asked.
With Havlat’s return, the top two lines look full right now, and the third line is starting to gel.

“We’ll see what the rest of the lines are doing, who’s healthy,” the coach said when asked about Wingels’ future spot. “We’re a day-by-day operation right now. We’re dealing with today and we’ll worry about tomorrow when it gets here.”

One of the other injured forwards, TJ Galiardi, stayed off the ice this morning while Michal Handzus did skate.

*****Nobody bothered asking, because it’s a given that Antti Niemi will be in net for the Sharks. And while it’s a safe bet that Jonas Hiller will be in goal for Anaheim as he’s started the last 32 games, coach Bruce Boudreau didn’t make that commitment when reporters asked him this morning.

If it’s not Hiller, it’ll be Jeff Deslauriers, who has one NHL start since being called up Feb. 14. But the Sharks have faced Deslauriers twice when he was with Edmonton as he’s 0-1-1 against them with a 3.84 GAA and .862 save percentage.

Strangely, though it was Hiller who backstopped the Ducks to that first-round playoff upset over the Sharks in 2009, his regular season record against San Jose over the years is 6-9 despite an impressive 2.26 GAA and .933 save percentage.

*****The Ducks, if you’ve forgotten, won the first three games of the season series against San Jose even when Anaheim had a hard time beating anybody else. The Sharks did win the most recent match-up, 3-1 on Jan. 4 at the Honda Center.

Boudreau took over behind the Anaheim bench on Nov. 30 and McLellan talked about how his old friend has implemented a different style of play over the past 45 or so games. In doing so, McLellan may have disclosed something that we all knew to be true, but may not have heard spoken aloud before:

“Some players are getting different opprotunities and that’s a natural thing when a different coach comes in,” McLellan said of the Ducks. “Every coach has his go-to guys and his favorite guys. We can say that because that’s how it is.”

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

Not an expert, but it looked to me like he committed to the shot and got burned… didn’t have enough time to get back into position because he was already on his knees when the shot was blocked…

I didn’t think it was all that bad… not much he could do once he committed to the shot (that didn’t come) and the rebound came right back to the shooter…

Not as bad as Nemo’s block of the break away where he was sliding out of position on the play and left the “freebie” sitting on the doorstep for a tap in… I thought he could have been more controlled and stayed in front of the net rather than sliding off to the side, regardless if he stopped the shot or not…

But again, the D (or Havlat) should have been there to help him out too, as others have already mentioned…

Just my opinion…

TheLearnedOne

SJ SUCKS! What a hopeless team! Totally dysfunctional. IDIOTS!

NB Finfan

Last observation for the night. Actually this is a thing that has bothered me over several seasons but it was reallly painfull to watch tonight. The Sharks have a real bad habit of batting at pucks or one timing pucks into areas of the ice where they have open players but they move the puck to a location where the support player cannot gain possession of the puck and it goes past them for another turnover.

Why does this team not have the poise or confidence to cradle the puck and take one look before moving it?

NoCupWithDW

renosharks and icehawkey say:

“Please. Icehawkey is right. Winnik is a beast and very valuable to our 3rd line. Actually try and watching the players when they’re on the ice sometime rather than just looking at the box score. He wasn’t brought here to become Evgeni Malkin.”

winnnik was such a beast he was benched in the 3rd period…

NB Finfan

My understanding on why a goalie goes down is to cover the bottom of the net. They concede the top half of the net because most goals are scored down low. They are playing percentages. But from a sharp angle the bottom of the net is already covered so why open the top of the net. Or in the case take your self out of the play by being on your knees.

JasonB

Was at the game tonite, without the benefit of replay or commentating, some top of mind thoughts…

a) Dont really fault the goalies on any of the goals….but still, would be nice if they can pull a save once in a while. You can say that the follow up is the D’s responsibility, but another view is if niemi made better saves, the puck wouldnt be sitting up in the blue paint by itself. Fault the defense all you will, but it’s damn hard to stop a guy from scoring with the puck there…

b) Braun had a bad game. he’s a kid, and that happens.

c) WInchester fighting parros: to me, this was a key moment in the game. A clear welter-mid weight is taking on the other teams’ heavy…and i think Parros won, and even was a bit generous. But the reaction from san jose was zilch…no energy, no nothing. That was the first MAJOR let down tonite. If team team can’t get up after your guy steps up, you’ve got problems…

d) The team deflated on the 5th goal. I saw it in the body language. All that effort to get the third. The turning of the energy. then DESTROYED by the goal, what, 30s later? And that was what the second quick comeback goal in the game. Forgive my french, that’s f***ing inexcusable. I saw the players skating back to the bench – it was dejection.

e) What was up with the lines? Did TM say ‘it wasnt working’? Really?! I’m getting so angry that his response to a problem is to throw a new line together…Oh, that didn’t work, well then let’s throw Couture and pavelski and ferreiro together? Did that work? I’m just…..I’m beside myself with anger. That’s what we have for coaching?! Throwing crap against the wall and hoping it works? You want a problem TM? Go coach for one of the 10 teams that have ONE GUY, see how many f***ing lines you can make then. Grrr…..

Sorry for the rant. Needed to get it out. probably need to punch a bag a bit….hour…something…

NoCupWithDW

and slappy says:

“Im not concerned about the Sharks having a let down in this game. It’s the evil Ducks coming in to our house! The animosity between the Sharks and the Ducks is well known. Brian Hayward, the Ducks announcer, referenced this bitter team rivalry just this weekend weekend. Our boys are “up” for this game – have no fear.”

Slappy, you were right, the Ducks were “up” for the game, and had no fear of the larks.

Again, the Ducks thank the Sharks GM, Doug Wilson for the #2 and #3 stars of the game.

NB Finfan

Okay I lied when I said one last observation. Here is one more. It seems to me through my teal colored eyes that most of the shots the Sharks take are swallowed up by the other goalies, no rebounds.

But our goalie cant hold on to a puck to save his life. The way our guys play in our DZ we need the goalie to hold on to shots to stop the momentem from our opponents.

Think about this from the offensive side. How many times do we shoot the puck right at the opposing goalies crest? No rebound. Face off loss and we are trying to get set up again. Frustration abounds.

Tony

I go to about 1 game a year and this is the game I chose to go to this season. Well, it just about summed up their season that I have been watching on T.V. perfectly!

1. Marleau is absolutely gutless! He literally is stealing money!!
2. Clowe and Murray are two of the slowest skaters in the League.
3. Mitchell offers nothing to a hockey team
4. Niemi is not only the worst stick handling goalie in the league but also the worst at controlling rebounds
5. McLellan has lost this team. Nobody even acknowledges him on the bench anymore
6. Watching Bonino and Palimieri destroy us when they should be in Sharks colors (not to mention McGinn) has convinced me Doug Wilson needs to be fired ASAP!! He has not only not won us anything, he has destroyed us for years to come!

I’m done! GO SHARKS! and Marleau get out of San Jose!

NoCupWithDW

and Beer League says:

“Time to beat the Ducks
make Hiller need tucks

let’s find a way
show them we can play

time to roll four lines
eff the fire Doug Wilson signs

let’s pass the stars
and take what’s ours

time to take third place
move ahead in the race

let’s jump the pack
and don’t look back

time for the new players
to shut up the naysayers

oh, and havlat’s back
so is nemo’s sack”

by my count, you went 1-16 in the poem above. the only one you got was Havlat is back. No 3rd place, no finding the way, no beating the ducks, definitely no jumping the pack, etc, etc etc.

ARE YOU READY TO BREAK OUT THE “fire Doug Wilson signs”?

NoCupWithDW

@209,

well put….

ZEKE

Was at the game and it was every bit as horrid in person as it was on TV. The team with every reason to fight for this game didn’t and the team with every reason to lay down played hard.

A think a lot of the crowd’s reaction was shock. We can’t be this bad with so much on theline, can we? Can We? CAN WE????

Well, yes we can. Yuck

icehawkey

We saw the Sharks three biggest weaknesses tonight; 1)Goaltending- Nemo is exhausted mantally and can’ stay focused for more than a game or two and is aleay sgiving up rebounds and cant recover due to lack of athleticism and biy he scary when pkaying the puck. 2) Coaching- Why wait til 5th goak to pull Goaltender that’s struvgled all year? Just to rest him? Pull him earlier or better yeat play Greiss from get go and Sharks may win. 3) Lack of consistency, whether it’s consistent effort or consistent style of play, it’s impossible to depend upon them. They seem to only get up for games against rivals that have good records. All that being said, they aint gonna win out til playoffs anf Ducks just plain have outr number (like we have The Wings’ #). Havelot is a beast and the lines got a lil greedy and didn’t back check enough tonight. Could be a good lesson to learn. Tmac will start Nemo next game instead of playing the better goalie and letting the other rest and come back rested and hungry. New coach plz!

Tony

I was selected to go on the ice during the first intermission for the tractor race. I was so pumped that they chose me to go out there! I have been to quite a few Sharks games but never had the opportunity to do anything like that.

So, Im thinking that this will be the greatest Shark’s game I have ever been to no matter what! Well, while going on the ice after the first period was extremely cool, any excited adrenaline I had going was completely sucked out by the Sharks performance tonight.

They literally did the impossible and played so bad that I didn’t even care about going on the ice during the game! They ruined what should of been a great experience for me as they so often do when I plan my evenings around watching them play! Just BLOW IT UP ALREADY!

Ladies and Gentleman, your 2012 San Jose Sharks. Where good memories come to get destroyed

ZEKE

A few things

1. Before the season, I wondered why the Sharks wouldn’t replace Yawney with someone with a different perspective. You need fresh eyes, fresh perspectives and fresh ways to communicate. This team has tuned out the coaches — and maybe even each other.

2. I get a sense that this team would be fine missing the playoffs. They’ve played an extra 5-6 weeks or so of hockey the last two years. Hard tough playoff hockey. Not only is it more time during the year, but it is less time for the body to recover. This team looks worn out. And its looked worn out for much of the year. Like they didn’t recover and get into top shape for this season.

3. Niemi is the goalie who reminds you of the bad girlfriend, the one you want to fall in love with and does stuff that make you feel it can work — and then just goes off the rails when you’ve decided to give the relationship another chance. Well the fans are ready for the breakup, but are the coaches and management?

4. Somewhere inside the Sharks room is a whiteboard and on it, it says:
– Play hard for 30.
– Fight for every other puck
– Skate sometimes, glide others

MLBSF

“It’s disappointing,” captain Joe Thornton said. “‘We could have hopped over a bunch of teams tonight but that’s sports.
———–

Um, no Joe.

That’s not sports. That’s you.

And that’s the team you do not lead as captain. Someone should rip that C off your sweater by the time the sun comes up on Tuesday.

It is a joke and an outrage that you can’t even get your lame team motivated with a handful of games left and the playoffs slipping out of your hands against a last place squad at home.

It’s unbelievable.

Not Again

Let us all be clear on the Perry goal…………”Both” Havlat and Vlasic were passengers on the play and made no effort to backcheck or tie up Perry. Coaches can roll film on that play in midgets to teach the young guys how to get an extended period of time on the bench. A total collapse and inexcusable lack of effort.

CyberShark

Watching the game last night my wife turned to me and said “They play like we do”. I replied “We don’t play hockey?”. She replied “Exactly”.

I have been a hockey fan since the 1950’s. The best sport in the world according to us when it is played well that is with skill and passion but not when it is played like we saw last night and too many times this year. The mountain got steeper, Sharks what are you going to do? Pack your bags and go on vacation or get together and play like a Hockey team? For too long now you have let your fans down, get up with some fire and play or ship out. The fans are waiting so is the ship, you choose.